Bulls roaming in the landfill site
Vrindavan, 2018.01.02 (VT): The designated landfill site of Vrindavan has become a bull battlefield. Every other day stray bulls fall into the deep concrete based pit made for garbage dumping.
Two bulls have recently died several other cattle get injured falling into the deep concrete pit prepared for the dumping of garbage. Although there is a boundary wall around the site with proper gate, there is a space between the sidewalls, which is wide open, giving easy access into the landfill. There is no gate from that side to prevent the stray animals entering the dumping ground.
The several meters deep pit around which a huge amount of garbage has piled up, has not yet been used for dumping garbage. The pits were constructed following the order of the National Green Tribunal, in which the erstwhile municipality was asked to manage the city’s municipal waste in accordance with MSW Rules 2000.
In its affidavit filed by the then Executive Officer of the municipality in the Green Court, the municipality declared that the pits sized 67 meters x 70 meters x 5 meters and 9.5 meters x 9.5 meters x 5 meters were built for collected for waste that is then to be made into compost. The Court also took an undertaking that the site is to be covered with plastic and precautions taken against insect infestation.
The municipality had also assured to the court that a Gaushala and a Kanji house* will be built for housing the cows and other stray animals. But it has already been six months since the judgment came on 3rd July, no steps have been taken to mange the garbage.
*’Kanji houses’ are shelter homes where animals are kept till they are claimed and taken away by their owners.
Garbage accumulating around the concrete pits
The designated area for the garbage dumping is full and is a complete mess. There is no place left for dumping garbage. No new technology for garbage recycling has been established yet. The original trenching ground, which had enough capacity to hold the garbage for the next twenty years, has been transformed into the whole sale market. No alternative arrangement was made before handing over the site to the Mandi Samiti, the government body that deals with wholesale markets.
concrete pits made for garbage dumping
Having failed to find a place for disposing the garbage, the Municipal Corporation is dumping it near the proposed Gaushala and Kanji House.
Cows lumber through the dirt, trying to bite through polythene covers hoping to munch rotten vegetable or kitchen refuse. In the process, many ingest the entire package plastic bags, rotten food and garbage.
Veterinarians have been giving statements that a huge build up of plastics are found in the stomachs of the cows and bulls, along with other indigestible inorganic materials. There has been little effort to save cattle from the real threat to their survival urban garbage and open dumps.
Other VT stories about the landfill saga.
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